HR Operations Senior Specialist (m/f/d)

Full-time | 40 hours per week | Vienna Headquarters, Austria

FOUR PAWS is the global animal welfare organisation for animals under direct human influence, which reveals suffering, rescues animals in need and protects them. Find out more about our sustainable campaigns and projects on https://www.four-paws.org.

Would you like to contribute to something meaningful and work with us on our mission? This is your chance. We are looking for dedicated people to enrich our team.

Your contribution will be

• Sparing with HR responsible colleagues in FOUR PAWS' countries and ensuring efficient people operations for national and international employments in compliance with local laws and organisational policies 
  
• Acting as a trusted partner for line managers on special team or team member situations in offices and sanctuaries, independently from the country of employment 
  
• Being responsible for solving requests from the beginning to the end by bridging all stakeholders for implementing the best solution and in strong collaboration with the HR Operations Navigator 
  
• Preparing the ground for decision-taking by HR Operations Navigator or PEOPLE Director 
  
• Guiding sanctuary support topics on higher level and in collaboration with different stakeholders within and outside PEOPLE Department and external partners, e. g. selected KPIs and quotas/ratios for sanctuaries, benchmarking staff numbers in units 
  
• Being involved in setting up people operations in new entities including preparing partnerships for recruiting, payroll, legal advice, HRIS, etc. 
  
• Acting as an ambassador for the development and implementation of consistent, high-quality service standards, of efficient standard operation processes, of initiatives, templates, guidelines, etc. from other areas of the PEOPLE Department like Empowerment, PR, HRSD, Culture, DEIB, ensuring that practical office and field experience is included 
  
• Proactively contributing to internal and cross departmental projects in a project-based work environment 
  
• Collecting regular mood-checks from the HR-responsible colleagues in the countries about people service-related trends (incl. AI), local legal regulations and benchmarks as well as driving the knowledge exchange within the global community

Your profile ideally illustrates

• Several years of experience in people operations or human resources, covering the full life cycle, preferably in an international environment 
  
• Experience with HRIS (Human Resources Information Systems) to monitor HR processes, ensuring accuracy, confidentiality, and GDPR compliance 
  
• Understanding international labour regulations, and knowledge of Austrian labour law could be beneficial 
  
• Experience in HR process optimisation (including AI-routines) and project work to enhance efficiency and employee experience 
  
• Experience in understanding different working environments, operational issues and sensitive or complex queries and their impact to people operations 
  
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in both German and English 
  
• Proficient in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint) or equivalent office software for day-to-day HR tasks and reporting 
  
• Excellent interpersonal, administrative, and organisational skills in a multi-country and -cultural environment and on different levels of hierarchies and departments 
  
• Well-structured and proactive working approach with high solution orientation 
  
• Passion for animal welfare and FOUR PAWS vision and mission

Our offer includes

• The opportunity to truly contribute to global animal welfare
• An international, dynamic work environment
• Flexible working times with the option of partial remote work
• A dog-friendly workplace
• Workplace health and wellbeing initiatives
• Wiener Linien annual ticket (or partial contribution to Klima Ticket) and pension fund after probationary period
• PAWSdays: extra days off at the end of the year on top of your 25 days of annual leave
• Birthday leave: extra day off to use around your birthday
• The minimum gross annual salary for this position starts at EUR 55,000 (full-time base, consisting of 14 payments), in accordance with our internal compensation scheme
  

We reveal, rescue and protect unique animals from many different species through systems change and by creating species-appropriate environments at our sanctuaries!

We celebrate our colleagues' differences and strive to create an inclusive environment because we believe that only by working together, we can advance animal welfare worldwide. We value diversity, equity, and inclusion, and we strongly encourage candidates from all diverse backgrounds and experiences to apply. This includes, but is not limited to, individuals with diverse lived experiences, racial identities, national origins, religions, socioeconomic backgrounds, ages, sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions, and disability statuses to apply. We welcome everyone who wants to support our mission. Please contact careers@four-paws.org if you require assistance applying to this position. 

All interested individuals are invited to submit their applications for the position. Please note that in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, having a valid work permit for the respective country or being eligible to obtain one is a requirement for this position prior to commencing employment.

Application deadline: 23rd of July 2026

Join our passionate team to make a difference for animals. Apply with your CV in English today.